No rhyme or reason – it’s a cruel game

The venue: Hawick Burns Club, an established and historical building erected in 1928, in recognition of Scotland’s world famous bard Robbie Burns.

Within the walls of the snooker hall on Sunday afternoon, however, it was Hawick Conservative Club who was putting the verses together and writing the poetry.

For in the Border pairs snooker championship, Con Club duo Lee McAllistar and Mark Riddell produced a not bard show to win the coveted title.

Facing Hawick Burns Club pair Davie Halfpenny and Robin Bell in the semi-final, McAllistar and Riddell emerged 2-0 victors.McAllistar made an excellent break of 46, the highest at the event.

The Hawick man’s triumph earned them a final spot along with reigning champions, Kelso Legion’s Rob Scott and Norman Lowrie, who beat the host club’s Jake and Ian McCombe in the other semi-final by two frames.

An exciting final looked on the cards and that’s the way it turned out to be.

McAllistar and Riddell opened in style by winning the opening two frames.

Scott and Lowrie now had a massive task on their hands to get into the picture, but the Tweedsiders got on with the job, coming back with a vengeance to take the next two frames and level the scores.

And in a tense and exciting final frame showdown it was the Teries who emerged 62-34 winners.

The winning pair dedicated their win to Border Snooker chairman Ian Robson who died recently.

McAllistar told TheSouthern: “Ian was a great guy and a true gentleman. He did a great deal for snooker and was well liked and highly respected. He will be sorely missed by everyone.

He added: “Mark and myself are really chuffed to have won the championship. After going two frames ahead in the final I felt we could perhaps do it as we had been playing very well.

“However, Rob and Norman’s heads didn’t go down and full credit to them for fighting back to draw level.

“The last frame was nervy and we had a bit of luck when Norman potted a brown, only for the white to go in as well. It was a great final and it’s brilliant to have won something as big as this. Mark and myself would like to thank Hawick Burns Club and everyone who made the championship possible.”

Losing finalist Scott told us: “I thought we had a great chance of winning after coming back the way we did in the final as our momentum was high.

“Things were going well until Norman had a bit of bad luck. Snooker can be a cruel game.”